Large-Scale Shifts in Tech & Tenant Needs Transforming Lighting Design
WEDNESDAY APRIL 17, 2019
On the 27th March at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, over 100 key players from the lighting industry came together to engage in an informative and entertaining dialogue, for the first-ever Light Space Design summit.
The jam-packed one-day event contained various keynote presentations and panel discussions centred around achieving quality lighting design within the built environment, brought about thanks to a diverse program filled with expert local and international speakers.
Two distinct themes and factors currently shaping the lighting design industry emerged at Light Space Design: the swift and consistent technology developments currently flowing throughout the lighting sphere, as well as the changing role of lighting design in meeting various human needs.
Certified Lighting Designer and NDYLIGHT Design Director Steve Brown opened the event with an evidence-heavy speech zeroing in on the history of lighting design, before exploring how designers can adapt to a rapidly changing industry.
Of the factors impacting lighting design companies over the next 3-5 years, Brown explained that an increasing complexity of client needs and new roles and expectations resulting from technological developments were seen by companies as having the most impact on their business.
Bruce Ramus, Founder/Creative Director of namesake company Ramus Illumination followed Brown’s presentation with a speech on the integration of light and media for public events and spaces.
Drawing on his lighting design work for events as diverse as Perth’s Optus Stadium and U2’s Vertigo Tour, Ramus spoke to the power of large-scale tech shifts in the lighting space, saying that they have become more affordable and user-easy and hold the potential to transform spaces.
But Ramus stressed that they can also exploit us and our built environment spaces, in the form of capital-driven installations like gigantic urban billboards of underwear models - which are less likely to benefit or enhance the city experience for visitors and locals.
Leading the dialogue into how lighting design can better benefit humans was UK-based Arup Fellow and Global Lighting Design Leader Florence Lam.
Lam emphasised the strengths of bringing spectrum and intensity variation of light in deep plan offices and spaces with much access to daylight.
For keeping care workers alert on night shift, irradiance and shorter visible wavelengths of light would be advantageous. In environments of learning, promoting the circadian phase advance would be beneficial for studying teenagers.
The second of four international speakers rounding out the event, Founder/Principal of the award-winning Klaasen Lighting Design Martin Klaasen, zeroed in on a highly specified and challenging form of lighting design: lighting heritage-listed buildings.
From Perth’s His Majesty’s Theatre to the Alila Yangshuo Hotel in China, Klaasen utilised various case studies to highlight the intricacies of considered, respectful and sometimes out-of-the-box heritage building lighting design.
Expotrade also diverted from their usual conference format with the addition of the Rapid Light Talks Segment.
Nearly 10 attending delegates played presenters during Rapid Light Talks, stepping onto the summit stage for a grand total of two minutes each.
Some participants drew from their work or company philosophies to underpin the quality of their work, while others presented on a new project or product they had worked on. Rapid Light Talks was a supportive and original way to round out the event’s first year.
The contribution of exceptionally talented speakers, speakers and sponsors showcasing their innovative designs, and the summit delegates and onsite staff ensured that the first-ever Light Space Design summit was not only a reality, but a success.
About Expotrade
Expotrade is a global conference and event organizer with its head office based in Melbourne, Australia. Expotrade has delivered some of the largest, most successful B2B industry conferences and events in the areas of infrastructure, major projects, sustainability, technology & architecture.
For over 10 years, our unique blend of knowledge, experience and flexibility has accomplished an array of consistently top-quality events. Today, Expotrade events enjoy such a distinctive edge, they are amongst the best patronised in the calendar.
For more information, visit www.expotradeglobal.com
